As scheduled, Wayne Root took part in a Defeat Obama telethon on July 3 which, before it even happened, led to a lot of controversy in LNC and IPR discussions.
Mark Hilgenberg points to the video of the whole event in comments on the previous story….
…and writes:
[Root] starts about 24 minutes in, skip ahead.
I am not fond of him saying we are kissing cousins with conservatives, Tea Party and the GOP, we are in the same tent.
I don’t get the whole Obama is a socialist thing, plus Obama has spent way less than Bush. He just repeats conservative myths.
“If it is not going to be Gary Johnson I certainly hope Romney defeats Obama” 31:00
Others here who have seen it so far have been more positive.
For example, Steve Linnabary writes:
Wayne did do a fairly good job of explaining libertarianism and the LP to the so-called TEA Party audience. And Wayne did put in a good plug for Governor Johnson.
I personally doubt it will have an effect, however. Just watching the comments in the chat window leads me to believe that it isn’t the policies of Obama that have these people riled, but rather Obama’s race. I really doubt these people can be reached.
I will note that there were two candidates on before Root, both running against Libertarians (Ted Cruz running against JJ Myers and Joe “The Plumber” Wurtzelbacher running against Sean Stipe in the 9th district here in Ohio) . And neither of them can be counted on to oppose big government spending.
Additional opinions welcome in the comments here.
Romney is not better than Obama. And Obama is not better than Romney either.
Why is this too hard for LPHQ and LNC to agree on?
How he thinks Romney’d be any better, or even difrent from Obama, I dont know. Why would a big L Libertarian say such bogus talk? He keeps convincing me da Party’d be better off without him.
Root does a decent job appealing to this particular audience. We need more Libertarians making appeals to other kinds of audiences in language they can relate to and training in speaking to different kinds of people, such as the Advocates has at
http://store.theadvocates.org/category_s/56.htm
The Libertarian Party may do well to develop a speakers bureau, as has been done in the past, and offering workshops in media placement.
The last time I kissed my cousin things got out of hand.
It probably depends on how close to last call it was…
Stewart,
I don’t think it was Wayne that made them laugh. Looks like it was someone off camera who first caught the attention of the host on the far left of the screen — she starts looking even further off to her right (screen left), then the center host looks in the same direction and smiles.
So I don’t think it was something Wayne said, it was something or someone who distracted them off camera in the radio studio.
Joe
I watched Wayne’s section of the video. While he has really flubbed up at times in the past, he didn’t do too badly.
No mention of Reagan (aka as a “libertarian”)
No mention of “Son of Butcher” (was getting lame)
The kissing cousin reference was so-so, but did not necessarily imply that libertarians are exactly like conservatives.
Remember, I’m not one of his supporters or drinking his (or anyone else’s) cool aide. I give him a B- on this one. Something he said made the hosts appear to start laughing at him, otherwise I’d have given him a B.
He does. His address is public information since he has been a candidate as well as used his home for publicly announced events.
GB @ 12: Methinks WAR lives in Henderson, NV.
At around 5:00 minutes in, when they are reading first names and amounts of donations, someone reads “Wayne in Reno,Nevada $100.”
Wonder how many Waynes are in Reno.
Jill @ 4 — it’s in the original URL for the story. Even when a headline is edited by an IPR reporter, the original headline remains as the URL (I think).
Joe
Bubba, didn’t you previously write something intelligent on another thread? I vaguely remember that.
7 teeth, it’s the VERY rare individual who can speak his/her truth in all places and all circumstances. The impulse for most is to please others, not to run counter to the groupthink that is likely prevalent in the audience.
Now, it is the case that some Ls seem to have the macho flash thing going on, explaining to a pro-life gathering that fetuses are parasites or what have you. That sort of behavior is also counter-productive.
Finding a middle ground with one’s communication approach sounds wise to me, and in this case, I’d say Root – and his teeth 😉 – found a happy medium on the pander > flash continuum.
Bubba- The lip thing, if it isn’t some unidentified fungus, could be a reaction to all the chocolate covered shrimp.
Aaron Starr: “I especially like how Wayne Root found a way to shoehorn in a pitch for Gary Johnson…”
What do you mean “found a way to shoehorn”?
You sound as if Root was faced with difficult obstacles in promoting Johnson.
Not so. Root was given time to speak. He could easily say whatever he wanted.
Jill: it was something to the effect that Gary Johnson and Wayne were headlining the event.
Every Root promo piece spins Root as “headlining” or “leading” or being the “star” of whatever event he has a minor part in.
The last time I kissed my cousin things got out of hand. I ended up with gonorrhea, herpes and syphillis and she ended up with a funny looking baby. Her daddy (my uncle and father in law) shot me in the butt-ttocks with his shotgun and I had to marry her even though everyone in all of Analingus-Dirty Sanchez micro-mini-metro area knows she is a slut and a cheap hooker.
I’m not sure why I bought that up just now but that baby sure is funny looking and I just had to tell all y’all. Dang my lip is swole up something fierce.
Jill- I believe libertarians are “kissing cousins” with liberals as well. It just depends on the issue.
I have forgotten what the original name was of the article which Aaron posted, and then was changed, but it was something to the effect that Gary Johnson and Wayne were headlining the event. This is certainly a much different scenario, with Wayne just calling in, and Gary making his appearance in Florida as planned. I wonder what this would have sounded like if there hadn’t been such an outrage before the event.
Having said that, I have no particular beef with Wayne here except for calling us “kissing cousins” with conservatives (ick!). He did a decent job of explaining libertarianism, refrained from telling everyone how absolutely wonderful he himself is and how beloved he is by the LP, and even managed to put in a good plug for Gary. It appears maybe Wayne does listen to his detractors, at least in this case.
Aaron, I’ll reply here since this is a review thread.
https://independentpoliticalreport.com/2012/07/threats-fly-on-lnc/#comment-756792
“I especially like how Wayne Root found a way to shoehorn in a pitch for Gary Johnson to an audience that is predisposed towards voting for Romney. If Wayne wasn?t a participant, those people simply would not have been exposed to Gary Johnson.”
Sure, I was happy to hear Gary mentioned but it wasn’t in a way which would move this crowd to action.
Plus he feeds their fears of voting for Johnson by saying we are kissing cousins with conservatives, something I consider very wrong.
As opposed to doing a pitch for how unique and correct the Libertarian position is he gives them their excuse to vote for the “good” major candidate.
?If it is not going to be Gary Johnson I certainly hope Romney defeats Obama? 31:00 WAR
His whole premise of outreaching to a crowd which focuses on the personality of politicians is flawed. People who repeat the same talking points which revolve around a politician (Obama is a Socialist, Kenyan, Muslim, etc.) will be the last people to vote for candidates promoting individual rights based issues.
They don?t really care about issues, or care about building a better world, they care about being right and voting for people who will give them personally, what they want.
As long as we are considered ?kissing cousins? with this crowd we will further alienate the independent and left leaning youth, which is by far the largest segment of the young reachable voters.
No, by left I am not talking ?socialists?, I am talking about people who see things wrong with our current system and only know about solutions which involve government. They seek solutions and politicians who are ?we? centered; they want to build a better world for all. Appealing to the ?me? centered (Get your government hands off my Medicare) older crowd, will lock them in the left.
By appealing to a larger audience it does not mean we need to start being ?anti-right? either, that just plays into the other side of personality politics. We need to be promoting liberty as a unifying, positive, benefits based solution for everyone, not an elitist, self-centered, country-club, in the know, kissing cousins of the GOP.
1. Root is Root.
2. If you bring up Johnson and his performance as Governor, why then ignore Romney and his performance as Governor if the “pundit” tag is to remain true?
3. The socialist thing makes him a crazy as it does everyone else.
4. I am still unclear how scamming people for gambling purposes makes one an economist.
5. He said nothing to offend. He is improving is non-speak. He can easily slide back to RINO if this bridge becomes too tainted.
He started out well with attacks on the Republican Party for failing to deliver on their rhetoric of small government. If only he could add to that pitch that limited government is about limiting government based on principles, then pivot to libertarianism’s limiting principles.
I agree that the socialism as boogeyman label being attached to Obama is a tired form of political rhetoric that misses more than it captures. I’d say the soft mixed-economy, spoils system form of government we have now is just as insidious as some alleged motivation on Obama’s part to nationalize all the means of production. Anyway, Wayne’s story about Columbia was more of a smear on Obama than anything, as presumably the fact that the vast majority of the Columbia class were pretty much all communists and socialists creates some sort of guilt by association. However, logically, Wayne was also a part of that class. By Wayne’s own recitation, he never saw Obama (a side smear) among that class. So based on just his form of argumentation, it is more likely that Wayne is a socialist than Obama! Wow, Newsflash, film at 11:00!
Plug for book…made me realize I have no prison excuse for having Wayne’s book from cover to cover…
Wayne ended it well for Gary Johnson too, saying that there were two choices, Gary Johnson or Romney, not Obama (not great rhetoric, but I’ll give that a pass for this audience). But then Wayne did a great push on Gary’s record in New Mexico and even used a good rhetorical premise, that if Romney is elected, he hopes that he governs as Gary Johnson governed in New Mexico.
Overall, a good effort on behalf of Gary considering the venue.